Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

ftances, we give a clear and decifive proof that we love him as ourselves. And in this there is evidently no im poffibility, no difficulty, no obscurity.

These then are the two great commandments, on which we are told hang all the law and the prophets; that is, on them, as on its main foundation, refts the whole Mofaic difpenfation; for of that, not of the Gofpel, our Lord is here speaking. To explain, eftablish, and confirm these two leading principles of human duty, was one of the chief objects of the law and the prophets. But it must at the fame time be remembered (as I have fhewn at large in a formar lecture*) that great and important as these two precepts confeffedly are, they do by no means constitute the whole of the Chriftian fyftem. In that we find many effential improvements of the moral law, which was carried by our Saviour to a much higher degree of perfection than in the Jewish difpenfation, as may be feen more particularly in his fermon on the mount. We find alfo in the New Teftament all those important evangelical doctrines which distinguish the Chriftian revelation; more particularly those of a refurrection; of a future day of retribution, of the expiation of our fins, original and perfonal, by the facrifice of Chrift, of fanctification by the Holy Spirit, of juftification by a true and lively faith in the merits of our Redeemer. If therefore we wish to form a just and correct idea of the whole Chriftian difpenfation, and if we wish to be confidered as genuine difciples of our divine Master, we must not content ourselves with obferving only the two leading commandments of love to God and love to men, but we must look to the whole of our religion as it lies in the Gofpel; we must endeavor to stand perfect in all the will of God, and in all the doctrines of his Son, as declared in the Christian revelation; and after doing our utmoft to fulfil all righteoufnefs, and to attend to every branch of our duty, both with respect to God, our neighbor, and ourselves, we must finally repofe all our hopes of falvation on the merits of our Redeemer, and on our belief in him as the way, the truth, and the life.

* Lect. vii. p. 190.

I must now put a period to thefe Lectures for the pre fent season; and if it should please God to perferve my life for another year, I hope to finish my obfervations on the gospel of St Matthew; beyond which I must not now extend my views.

In the mean while, from what I have obferved in the progress of these Lectures, I cannot help indulging a humble hope that they have not been unattended with fome falutary effects upon your minds. But when, on the other hand, I confider that the time of year is now approaching, inwhich the gaities and amufements of this vaft metropolis are generally engaged in with incredible alacrity and ardour, and multitudes are pouring in from every part of the kingdom to take their fhare in them; and when I reccollect further, that at this very period in the laft year a degree of extravagance and wildness in pleafure took place, which gave pain to every ferious mind, and was almost unexampled in any former times; I am not, I confefs, without fome apprehenfions, that the fame scene of levity and diffipation may again recur; and that 7: some of those who now hear me (of the younger part more especially) may be drawn too far into this fashionable yortex, and loose in that giddy tumult of diverfion all remembrance of what has paffed in this facred place. I must therefore moft earnestly caution them against these fascinating allurements, and recommend to them that moderation, that temperance, that modesty in amufements, which their Christian profeffion at all times requires; but for which at this moment there are reafons of peculiar weight and force*.

To indulge ourselves in endlefs gaieties and expensive luxuries, at a time when so many of our poorer brethren are, from the heavy preffure of unfavorable circumftances, in want of the most effential neceffaries of life, would furely manifeft a very unfeeling and unchriftian difpofition in ourselves, and would be a most cruel and wanton aggravation of their fufferings.

* This Lecture was given in April 1800, a time of great scarcity and extreme dearnefs of all the neceffaries of life.

1

2

It is true indeed that their wants have hitherto been relieved with a liberality and kindness, which reflect the highest honor on those who exercised them. But the evil in question ftill fubfifts in its full force, and is, I fear, more likely to increase than to abate for months to come, and will of course require unceasing exertions of benevolence and repeated acts of charity on our part, to alleviate and mitigate its baneful efiects.

Every one ought therefore to provide as ample a fund as poffible for this purpofe; and how can this be better provided than by a retrenchment of our expenfive diverfions, our fplended affemblies, and luxurious entertainments? We are not now required, as the young ruler in the Gospel was, to fell all we have and give to the poor; but we are required, especially in times fuch as these, to cut off all idle and needlefs articles of profufion, that we 66 may have to give to him that needeth."

And when we confider that the expence of a single evening's amusement, or a fingle convivial meeting, would give fupport and comfort perhaps to twenty wretched families, pining in hunger, in sickness, and in forrow, can we so far diveft ourselves of all the tender feelings of our nature (not to mention any higher principle), can we be fo intolerably felfish, fo weded to pleafure, fo devoted to our own gratification, as to let the lowest of our brethren perifh, while we are folacing ourselves with every earthly delight? No one that gives himself leaf to reflect for a moment can think this to be right, can maintain it to be consistent with his duty either to God or man. And, even in respect to the very object we fo eagerly pursue, and are fo anxious to obtain, in point even of pleasure, I mean, and felf-gratification, I doubt much whether the giddiest votary of amusement can receive half the real fatisfaction from the gayeft fcenes of diffipation he is immersed in, that he would experience (if he would but try) from refcuing a fellow-creature from deftruction, and lighting up an afflicted and fallen countenance with joy.

Let us then abridge ourselves of a few indulgences, and give the price of what they would cost us to those who

have none. By this laudable species of œconomy, we fhall at once improve ourselves in a habit of felf-denial and felf-government; we fhall demonftrate the fincerity of our love to our fellow-creatures, by giving up fomething that is dear to us for their fake, by facrificing our pleasures to their neceffities; and above all we shall approve ourselves as faithful fervants in the fight of our Almighty Sovereign; we shall give fome proof of our gratitude to our Heavenly Benefactor and Friend, who has given us richly all things to enjoy, and who, in return for that bounty, expects and commands us to be rich in good works, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to com fort the fick, to vifit the fatherless and widow in their afflic tion, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, unpolluted by its vices, and unfubdued by its predominant vanities and follies.

LECTURE XIX.

MATTHEW xxiv.

TH

HIS courfe of Lectures for the prefent year will begin with the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew; which contains one of the clearest and most important prophecies that is to be found in the facred writings.

The prophecy is that which our bleffed Lord delivered refpecting the deftruction of Jerufalem, to which, I apprehend, the whole of the chapter, in its primary. acceptation, relates. At the fame time it must be admitted, that the forms of expreffion, and the images made ufe of, are for the most part applicable alfo to the day of judgment; and that an allusion to that great event, as a kind of fecondary object, runs through almost every part of the prophecy. This is a very common practice in the prophetic writings, where two fubjects are frequently carried on together, a principal and a fubordinate one. In Isaiah there are no less than three fubjects, the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, the call of the Gentiles to the Christian covenant, and the redemption of mankind by the Meffiah, which are frequently adumbrated under the fame figures and images, and are fo blended and interwoven together, that it is extremely difficult to feparate them from each other*. In the fame manner our Saviour, in the chapter before us, feems to hold out the deftruction of Jerufalem, which is his principal fubject, as a type of the diffolution of the world, which is the underpart of the reprefentation. By thus judiciously mingling together these two important catastrophes, he gives at the fame time (as he does in many other inftances) a most interesting admonition to his immediate hearers the Jews, and a most awful leffon to all his future disciples; and the

* Bishop Lowth on Isaiah. Iii. 13.

« AnteriorContinuar »